Operations Manager

OTIV is a Ghent-based company leading the autonomous revolution in rail. We are on a mission to increase safety and efficiency of railway operations by teaching rail vehicles to drive autonomously. By making trains more efficient and safer, we actively contribute to a modal shift and a greener future. We bring this vision to life by a unique focus on the most challenging environments such as cities, shunting yards and industrial sites. Thanks to high-profile partners and world-leading clients such as Deutsche Bahn, SNCF Group, ArcelorMittal and CAF we deliver the future of railway operations today.

OTIV is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to a work environment that supports, inspires, and respects all individuals and in which personnel processes are merit-based and applied without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, age, disability, national or ethnic origin, military service status, citizenship, or other protected characteristic. OTIV strives to create an environment in which all employees feel confident in their ability to bring their authentic selves to work and secure collaborating with colleagues and customers.

As our Operations Manager, you make sure every OTIV product is built to quality standards and delivered on time and in full. You own the product chain from supplier to customer: procurement, production, quality, stock, logistics, deployment and customer support. Our products combine hardware and software, so you make sure every unit ships with the right hardware generation, software release and configuration, and stays that way in the field. As the final link in our define-build-sell-deliver product cycle, you work closely with Product, Engineering, Sales and Project Delivery. Our product range is broad: from OTIV.ONE deployments for industrial customers, to OTIV.TWO integration projects for OEMs and PTO customers (requiring retrofits), and selected projects in Supervised Autonomy. You lead our two Operations Engineers, build the team as we scale, and report to the Operations Lead.

This role is for people who like a challenge: in OTIV's next phase, new products need to be productized, and our Ops processes scaled and maintained.

As Operations Manager at OTIV you will

• Play a key role in building the team, together with our Operations Engineers
• Run S&OP: plan what to build and when, based on sales, project delivery, supplier availability and capacity
• Own operational KPIs, with on-time, in-full delivery as the north star
• Prepare operations for new products moving from development into production

Procurement & supply chain

• Own procurement and supplier management & selection, connecting suppliers with Engineering (specs, quality) and Sales (planning, delivery)
• Manage bulk orders and subcontracting of (sub)assemblies
• Own BOMs in the ERP, cost of goods and stock management, including stock counts
• Run international shipments, including customs

Deployment & customer support

• Own the flow from sales order to deployment and support
• Make sure the right people are lined up for every deployment, from our own team or partners, so our Project Managers can execute customer projects
• Build and continuously improve our customer support function and feedback loop

Quality, systems & processes

• Align with Engineering on software releases: plan, validate and roll out updates to units in stock and in the field
• Own product quality, from incoming quality control to factory acceptance tests (FAT)
• Own the product operations part of our V-cycle: production, acceptance testing, installation and deployment
• Own Odoo, our ERP, and all product operations processes in it
• Build and improve operational processes and keep them audit-ready (ISO)

• 7+ years in operations, supply chain or procurement in a hardware/electronics, industrial or manufacturing environment
• Strong in procurement and supplier management, both commercially and technically
• Proven people leadership
• Hands-on experience with Odoo, S&OP and stock management
• Experience with electronics and hardware supply chain in a low-volume, high-mix setting
• Experience with ISO 9001, quality control and factory acceptance testing
• Experience with international shipping and customs
• Experience with release or configuration management for connected devices (e.g. test management tools such as TestRail)
• Experience building processes and taking products from development into production
• Structured and meticulous, yet decisive
• A strong connector who builds trust across teams and with partners
• Master's degree in engineering, supply chain or business, or equivalent experience
• Fluent in English

Nice to haves

• Rail or transportation experience
• Scale-up experience
• Dutch

What we offer 

• Full time offer with competitive salary package.
• International environment in a disruptive scale-up with opportunities to grow.
• Early riser or night owl? Either way, you’ll fit right in our flexible working hours system.
• Hybrid working policy, with an office in beautiful Ghent (Belgium).
• Collaborative, transparent, and fun-loving office culture.
• Team events and quarterly offsite.
• 32 days of vacation.